Guest Post from VADM Cliff Pearson, Chief of Staff.
Shipmates,
Today, I proudly participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Surface Forces Logistics Center (SFLC) and Asset Project Office (APO) held at the historic Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, MD. Today's event represents critical milestones for both the United States Coast Guard's Modernization efforts and the Logistics Transformation Program. We are one step closer to providing centralized, bi-level support to power Coast Guard mission execution.
As announced on January 5th, I assigned Captain Dennis Blackall as the first Commander of the SFLC and Captain Mark Butt as Commanding Officer of the new APO. These outstanding leaders will be instrumental in standing-up these organizations.
The SFLC will provide the Coast Guard's surface fleet, including cutters, ice breakers, and boats, with centralized management of depot level maintenance, engineering, supply, logistics, and information services through 24-hour customer service; and one-stop technical support and assistance for all matters that go beyond the expertise of the unit. SFLC will be responsible for sustaining Coast Guard surface assets for the entire operational life cycle of the asset, from completion of the acquisition phase by the APO, through decommissioning and disposal for all USCG surface forces, including over 200 cutters and over 1,800 small boats. It will manage asset-based mission readiness through centralized product lines executed regionally through detachments geographically remote from the Command location.
The APO is responsible for all aspects of asset logistics, engineering, and operational support until the newly acquired capability has been fully immersed into Coast Guard Operations. The primary roles of the APO are to deliver a complete system capability; determine and manage asset lifecycle costs; provide necessary training to establish product lines; and develop integrated logistics support for assets.
The SFLC, APO, the previously established Aviation Logistics Center (ALC), with the remaining planned logistics and service centers (Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center, C4IT Service Center, and Personnel Service Center) will unify logistics support enterprise-wide, forming the backbone of our improved mission support organization for sustainable mission execution excellence. In the future these logistics and services centers will embody the following four guiding principles of the proven business model: Bi-level maintenance, Configuration Management, Single point of accountability through Product Line Managers, and Total Asset Visibility. By modernizing our business processes and organizational design, we will help to ensure the Coast Guard meets our call to be "Always Ready."
